


Wherever You Start

by michaelandthegodsquad



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Veterinarians, Cats, Comedy, Dogs, Ferrets, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Pets, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29300862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/michaelandthegodsquad/pseuds/michaelandthegodsquad
Summary: "I think my ferret hurt her leg," Rin says on the phone with the vet at 2:00 AM. "Can you see her?"That’s definitely the sound of a mattress creaking as Komori apparently slips out of bed. “Oh! Poor thing. Yeah, you can bring her right over.”A pause, and then—“Hey, this isn’t some weird ploy to rob my clinic, right? I don’t have enough ketamine to justify holding me up for it.”Rin laughs, slipping on a jacket and grabbing his keys. “Nah, I’ve got klonopin for that.”Or: the SunaKomo veterinarian AU no one asked for.
Relationships: Komori Motoya/Suna Rintarou
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40





	Wherever You Start

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know where this came from.
> 
> **Extra CWs:** Animal injury, mild description of medical procedures including use of needles
> 
> Special thanks to the gc for helping brainstorm some stuff! And to [Dindi](https://twitter.com/dindie__) as usual for cheerleading AND the adorable! art! that went into the [fic graphic](https://twitter.com/mikeandgodsquad/status/1358961769713180675?s=20)!

It’s not the first time Ube has ever fallen out of her hammock, but it  _ is  _ the first time Rin has ever heard her make that noise.

It’s past 1:00 AM when he hears her cage rattling, followed by whining that makes Rin’s stomach sink as he hauls himself off his couch and makes his way over to the bedroom. Ube is on the bottom level of her cage, trying to scramble to the next level via the ramp, but slips back down every time she puts any weight on her back right leg. He’s careful about opening the cage slowly so as not to startle her, and gently picking her up with one hand, gently taking her out without jostling her too much. Still, she hisses once she’s out, and continues to favor that leg once he sets her on the ground.

Well, shit. That’s not good.

Ube’s never had any medical emergencies, but Rin knows from personal experience how hard it can be to get her to calm down on a good day. From the way she’s squirming and shuffling right now, he’s not sure he can wait until morning to take her to her regular vet without her causing even more damage.

He picks her up again, holding her to his chest and careful not to let her move too much as he gets her carrier out of the closet and ushers her into it. He quickly looks up his vet’s website and doesn’t see an emergency number listed anywhere; desperate, he calls the regular number to see if there’s an emergency number mentioned in the automated message. Nope, nothing.

He does a little more digging for other local vets while he runs his thumb back and forth over Ube’s head in what he hopes is a soothing motion. She’s still whimpering, but being in the closed space of the carrier seems to have lessened her squirming. It’s closing in on 1:30 when he finds a vet only a little bit out of the way that has an emergency number listed and will take more than just cats and dogs. Rin pops in his earbuds and slips his phone into his pocket as the line starts ringing, opening the drawer where he keeps all of her sweaters. It’s only early November, but he doesn’t typically take her out at this time, so he opts for a loose gray sweater which he’s just starting to slip over her head when someone answers the call.

“Hello?” the guy says, mid-yawn. Rin pauses before he can put Ube’s front legs in the arm holes of the sweater, sure he can hear sheets rustling on the other end of the line.

“Oh,” he says. “Sorry, I must have a wrong number. I was trying to call the vet—”

“Oh!” the guy says back, his voice suddenly bright if slurred with sleep. “No yeah, that’s me, sorry! The emergency number is just—” pause for another yawn— “my cell. Can I help you?” There’s another rustle of sheets as Rin resumes fitting Ube’s legs into the sweater.

“I think my ferret hurt her leg,” he says, grabbing a blanket from her cage and tucking it carefully around Ube’s body before zipping up the carrier. “She keeps trying to walk on it so I didn’t want to wait until morning. Can you see her?”

That’s definitely the sound of a mattress creaking as the vet apparently slips out of bed. “Oh! Poor thing. Yeah, you can bring her right over. Just ring the bell out front and I’ll unlock the door for you.” A pause, and then—“Hey, this isn’t some weird ploy to rob my clinic, right? No one pays in cash anymore and I don’t have enough ketamine to justify holding me up for it—”

Rin laughs, slipping on a jacket and grabbing his keys. “Nah, I’ve got klonopin for that.” He taps open his rideshare app and finds a driver surprisingly quickly. “I’ll be there in 20 minutes? Does that work?”

The vet hums. “Yup! See you soon!”

Rin makes his way downstairs to the front of his building to wait for his ride. In his earbuds, he can still hear the vet shuffling around, followed by the distinct sound of a coffee pot turning on. He chuckles, then taps on his earbud to hang up the call as his ride pulls up in front of the building.

He looks up the vet’s website again since they sort of forgot to get each other’s names, and finds that the only vet at the practice is someone named Komori. There’s a picture of him that won’t load on Rin’s phone for some reason, so he returns his attention to Ube and tries to get a photo for her Instagram. It’s too dark in the back of the car to get anything decent. He unzips the carrier, just enough to get a few fingers inside but not enough for Ube to be able to rush out, and scratches her forehead until the car pulls up in front of the address.

It’s a small place, a single glass door with Komori’s name and title, the phone number, and opening hours on it. As Rin steps up to the door, he can see a light on in one of the back rooms, although the light near the front door is off. He presses the button that presumably rings the bell and waits.

He can’t quite make out any features on the figure who shuffles to the door because of how dark it is, but the bright, lilting voice that greets him is definitely the same one that was on the phone. “Hi! Sorry I forgot to get your name on the phone, are you the one with the ferret?” Rin holds up Ube’s carrier in lieu of answering, letting Ube’s squeak answer for itself.

Komori laughs, opening the door wider. “You can come in and head to the exam room, I’ll need to lock up behind you so no one else comes in.”

Rin nods, using the faint light from the back of the clinic to guide his way. He holds Ube’s carrier close to his chest and blinks against the buzzing fluorescent light of the exam room as he steps inside. It’s clean and bright, the stainless steel table smelling faintly of disinfectant as Rin sets down Ube’s carrier. Glancing around, he sees several diagrams on the wall, including a scale of cat chonkiness (it really does say chonkiness, hand-written with marker), a light box, and a bulletin board full of what seem to be photos of current and former patients.

Rin turns when he hears Komori shuffling towards the exam room, turning his attention to the doorway as he walks in and—

And Rin blinks. A lot. Rubs the fatigue from his eyes for a moment, expecting his eyes to have deceived him. Blinks again. But nope, still the same head of soft-looking chestnut hair, the same expressive eyebrows and bright eyes, even with slight dark circles under them, and the same charming smile as Komori introduces himself and asks for Rin’s name.

_ Oh no. _

“Uh. Suna. Rintarou,” he says after a moment, voice rough as he clears his throat. “This is Ube.” He gestures to the carrier, desperate for a distraction. Komori smiles and makes his way to the sink, rolling up the sleeves of his white coat to begin washing his hands.

“So, Suna-san, what happened to Ube?” he says, lathering soap over his hands. Rin tries not to stare. “You can start getting her out of the carrier for me.”

Rin shrugs, then unzips the carrier. “I wasn’t in the room, but I heard her fall. She rolls off the hammock all the time, but. I don’t know. Maybe she hit the water dish or something this time. She’s favoring her back right leg.” He caresses Ube’s head with his thumb, gently coaxing her out of the carrier and onto the table.

Komori nods, ripping paper towels out of the dispenser and drying his hands. “Okay. I’ll do a physical exam first, but I’d like to get an x-ray just to see what we’re dealing with.” When he turns around, his face lights up as he looks at Ube. “Oh! What a pretty cinnamon baby you are!” he says, leaning down to look Ube in the eye. He scratches under her chin, smiling widely as she dooks quietly. “Poor Ube-chan! I’m sorry you had an accident. We’ll get you fixed up right away, okay?”

For a brief moment that can only be explained by fatigue-induced delirium, Rin finds himself wishing Komori would scratch under his chin and baby talk to him instead.

Wait, what?

Komori laughs, standing and turning his attention back to Rin. “Can you try to hold her in front so she doesn’t move too much?”

Rin complies with a dazed nod, cupping Ube’s face between his thumbs and forefingers and using his remaining fingers to hold her front legs in place. He lets himself glance over Komori’s mismatched pajamas under his white coat—cats with yarn on the bottoms, a cartoonish shiba inu with a banana on its head on his t-shirt—while Komori gently handles Ube’s back legs, turning her body this way and that and watching for her reactions. His tongue peeks out of the corner of his mouth as he focuses his attention on prodding softly at Ube’s leg, eyes darting to her face as she jerks away from him and squeaks.

“There’s a little swelling. I’m going to give her a light sedative and then we’ll get her over to x-ray.”

It’s a quick process; Rin holds Ube still, stroking her face and mumbling to her in what he hopes is a soothing voice while Komori prepares the needle. She squeaks for a moment when it penetrates, and the next, she’s drooling onto the stainless steel.

“Damn,” Rin says, gently setting her head down. Komori removes her sweater, handing it to Rin, before he picks her up carefully and brings her over to x-ray her in the room across the hall. Rin crosses his arms and leans against the counter with the sink as he watches Komori work. Despite Ube being sedated, he can hear Komori cooing at her as he adjusts her this way and that, activating the machine intermittently. When he’s done, he brings Ube back to the exam room and lays her down gently on the table while he heads back to get the images printed.

Rin sighs, pulling Ube’s blanket out of her carrier and draping it over her. It’s nearly 3:00 AM now, he realizes, glad that he makes up his own work schedule and can sleep in if he wants. He glances over at the other room, where he can hear Komori humming as he works, and winces when he realizes he’ll probably still have to open his clinic at his regular time in a few hours.

Still, Komori doesn’t seem to mind when he steps back into the exam room, holding up two images and slotting them into the light box on the wall. “So,” he says, standing back with his hands on his hips. “Here’s what we’re working with. Do you see this here?” he points briefly at one spot on what looks to be Ube’s leg. Rin does not see whatever “this” is, but he nods anyway, deciding that he likes Komori’s hands.

“It’s just a hairline fracture, which is good. For something like this or a sprain, I’d normally leave it alone, but since you mentioned earlier that she’s an active girl, we’ll do a little splint for a week or so just to give her some extra support.”

Komori opens a drawer, pulling out a few items which he sets onto the exam table. “Hmm,” he says after a moment, tapping his chin. “Bees or dinosaurs?”

Rin blinks. “What?”

Komori turns, holding up two roles of patterned flex bandages. “To keep the splint from chafing. Which pattern? Bees or dinosaurs?”

Rin glances between the two, considers rubbing his eyes to make sure he’s seeing this correctly because there’s—there’s just no way, right? No one is this cute?

“Bees,” is what he settles on, allowing himself the faintest smile as Komori tucks the dinosaur-patterned bandages back into the drawer, bumping it closed with his hip as he makes his way back to the table.

“It’s a good thing she managed to wake you,” Komori says, not looking up as he straightens Ube’s leg out and begins wrapping. “She could’ve made it worse if she’d kept putting weight on it.”

Rin hums. “I was up,” he says, shrugging. “I don’t sleep much.”

Komori glances up at his, raising one eyebrow. “Klonopin and all?”

Rin barks out a dry laugh. “Don’t hold that against me. I’m doing my best.”

Komori’s laugh is a light, lilting thing as he begins splinting Ube’s leg. “No, I can see that. You can tell Ube is loved and well-cared for.”

Rin doesn’t…know what to do with that. Ube’s Instagram has almost 75,000 followers who all comment on how cute she is, how good her sweaters and Halloween costumes look, how much they want a ferret of their own, but. No one’s ever said anything like that, or paid attention to all the care and effort Rin puts into keeping her healthy and happy. Rin looks away, stuffing his hand into his pocket. “Thanks,” he mumbles.

Komori glances up at him, smiling softly. “I think she’s good to go,” he says, checking the splint one more time. “I’ll give you a cone just in case she picks at it, but here’s hoping she behaves,” he says with a laugh. He holds the carrier in place and lets Rin carefully place her inside, careful not to jostle her too much, then guides Rin back to the front room.

“Oh, right,” Komori says, making his way behind the reception desk. He forgoes turning on the bright overhead lights and instead flicks on a desk lamp that casts them both in a soft yellow glow. He boots up a laptop, typing a few things in, then turns the screen in Rin’s direction to show him the invoice, explaining the items. Rin frowns, already mentally shuffling some things around. He gets a little bit of ad revenue from sponsored posts on Ube’s Instagram, but those are few and far between since he only promotes things he actually uses. Whatever. It’s for Ube, he tells himself, already taking out his credit card while Komori begins to rattle off care instructions.

“I can e-mail these to you, too, with your receipt,” he says, to which Rin nods and recites his address.

He makes an appointment for 10 days from now to remove the splint and follow up. Komori walks him outside, still bright and cheery despite it being close to 4:00 AM.

“I, uh,” Rin says, stuffing his hand into the pocket of his jeans as he waits for his ride to arrive. Komori glances at him as he locks up the clinic. “Thanks, for this. For answering the phone, and letting us show up in the middle of the night.”

Komori waves him off. “Of course! That’s what I’m here for. I hope Ube feels better soon.” There’s a streetlight shining orange on both of them as they stand on the sidewalk in front of the clinic in the stillness of the early morning. Komori has ditched his white coat, now wearing a soft-looking yellow hoodie, spinning his keys in a loop around his finger as he smiles up at Rin (up, despite only being a few inches shorter), the dark circles under his eyes probably mirroring Rin’s own.

Rin’s ride pulls up, and he pulls Ube’s carrier close to his chest. “Thanks. Uh, good night, Komori-san.”

Komori waves, staying in place until Rin gets into the car and it begins to drive off. Only then does he make his way to the side entrance of the building and head upstairs.

As soon as Rin is home, he removes the higher levels from Ube’s cage like Komori told him to, then puts her blanket and other comfy items on the bottom level. He settles Ube into the soft pile, then finally lets himself flop into bed. It’s 4:30, and he can hear his neighbor’s alarm going off on the other side of his bedroom wall.

Rin sighs, staring up at his ceiling and thinking about Komori, his cheerful attitude but teasing smile and soft, lilting voice. The sun is well on its way to rising by the time he manages to fall asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/mikeandgodsquad) if you're 18+ and want to cry about 2d characters with me!
> 
> Hoping to get chapter 2 out by the weekend.


End file.
